A prompt template is only useful if it survives contact with a real task. Most published lists fail because they are either too vague to change the output or too specific to reuse.
Every template below follows one structure. Once you see it, you can write your own in a minute.
The structure
TASK: what you want produced
CONTEXT: who it is for and what they care about
FORMAT: length, layout, tone
LIMITS: what it must not do, and what to do if unsureLimits is the part people skip and the part that matters most. It is what stops invented numbers and padding.
Writing
1. Draft an email to [person] asking for [thing] by [date].
They are [busy / sceptical / senior]. Under 120 words. No
preamble. If you need a detail, write [ADD].
2. Rewrite this for [audience]: [text]. Keep every fact. Cut
length by a third. Plain words.
3. Write three subject lines for this email, under 50
characters each: [email].
4. Turn these notes into a one-page brief for [audience]:
objective, background, scope, deadline, open questions.
[notes]
5. Draft a polite no to [request], offering [alternative].
Under 80 words.Deciding
6. I am choosing between [A] and [B] for [goal]. List the
three factors that matter most and how each option scores.
Recommend one in the first line.
7. Here is my plan: [plan]. What are the three most likely
reasons it fails? Be blunt.
8. What would I need to believe for [option] to be the right
call? List the assumptions and how to test each.
9. Argue against this decision as a sceptical CFO would:
[decision].
10. Turn this messy situation into a decision I can take to my
manager: the question, the options, my recommendation:
[situation].Summarising
11. Summarise this for [audience] in five bullets. Decisions and
numbers first. Use only the text provided: [text].
12. From this transcript, list decisions, actions with owners
and dates, and open questions: [transcript].
13. What changed between these two versions, in meaning not
wording? [v1] [v2]
14. Explain [concept] to [audience] in under 150 words with one
example from [their world].
15. Pull every date, number and commitment out of this document
into a table: [document].Planning
16. Break [goal] into weekly steps for [number] weeks. Flag the
step most likely to slip.
17. Build an agenda for a [length] meeting to decide [question].
Include time per item and the decision each item needs.
18. Turn this to-do list into today's plan, most important first,
with anything that can wait marked: [list].
19. Draft a project plan for [project]: milestones, owners,
risks. Where you do not know an owner, write [OWNER].
20. What questions should I ask [person] before starting [task]?
Maximum eight.Where to keep them
A template you cannot find does not get used. Keep your top ten in a project, Gem or saved prompts area, not a document you have to open. For a team, see how to make shared rules stick; the same principles apply to shared prompts.
Questions people ask
Do prompt templates work across ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini?
Yes. They are plain text. Output style differs slightly between tools, but the structure works in all of them.
How long should a prompt be?
As long as it needs to be to state the task, context, format and limits. Usually two to six lines.
Are prompt templates better than custom instructions?
They do different jobs. Custom instructions apply everywhere; templates are for specific tasks. Use both.
Where to take this next
Put the preferences you repeat into custom instructions so every template gets shorter. The Work Arsenal has 40 ready-made playbooks, each a fuller version of the templates above.
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